The Acrolaw Blog is a resource for lawyers, law firms, paralegals, legal IT pros and anyone interested in the use of Acrobat in the legal community. Rick Borstein, blog author, is a Principal Solutions Consultant with Adobe Systems Incorporated.

How do I open a PDF in Acrobat instead of the browser?

By default, PDF files opened from a web page display inside the browser window with a limited toolbar:

The default behavior does not suit the needs of all legal users. Some eFiling sites require running in the browser, but other applications require opening the PDF directly in Acrobat.

It is easy to change the way that Acrobat opens files from the browser by modifying Preferences.

Read on to learn how to change Preferences.

I’ll also tell you about a very useful Firefox extension that let’s you choose— on the fly— whether you would like a PDF to open in the browser or in Acrobat.

An Easy Preferences Change

To change the default PDF open behavior when using a web browser:

Choose Edit—>Preferences

Select the Internet category from the list on the left

To display the PDF in the browser, check "Display in browser"To open PDFs from the web directly in Acrobat, uncheck "Display in browser:

A More Flexible Approach using Firefox

Mozilla Firefox, a free, Open Source web browser, is becoming increasingly popular in the legal community. Some legal users feel it is more secure than Internet Explorer. When you install Firefox, all of your existing bookmarks are imported.

One compelling reason to switch to Firefox is the great number of free extensions which can add useful features to the application.

The PDF Download extension is a free add-in that offers the user the choice of opening the PDF in the browser or in Acrobat.